Letter to a Friend
by Illyria Lives
Summary: Nya tries to explain her new living conditions to a friend via e-mail... and has a hard time describing the four ninja. Later, the team tries to find a way to stay together after the fall of the Overlord.
1. Chapter 1

**Nya gets too little love in fanfiction, so I decided to write something about her.**

**I don't own Ninjago or the characters.**

* * *

Nya sat at her computer, smiling to herself. She and her laptop (self-made, no big deal or anything) were seated at the dining room table on the _Bounty_. It was a bright Saturday morning, and she had an hour or two at most to herself before the ninja finished their training and flocked to the inside of the ship to play video games for hours.

She had gotten an email from one of her old girlfriends from Jumonikai village, asking how she was.

_Dear Ty Lee,_

_Don't worry; Kai and I are fine! After the village was attacked by skeletons, he joined a group of ninjas to save me, and now we all live together on a flying ship called the _Destiny's Bounty_._

Nya stopped, chewing on her lip. If it wasn't for the first part of the sentence, she doubted that Ty Lee would have believed anything she said. It hadn't hit her until then how strange it must be, standing on the outside of her life, looking in.

She contined to type.

_There are four of them, one for each element. Kai is the ninja of fire (no surprises, right?) and then there are the other three. The leader is named Cole, and he's the ninja of earth. He's always calm, dependable, like, well, ROCK. Ha. Just kidding, he's also a really sweet guy. Gooey center, you know? He—_

Nya stopped typing as the ninja of earth entered the dining room himself, heading to the kitchen. He smiled serenely at her, and she stood nervously.

"Cole?" she asked with trepidation, "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," he said, pressing a wet rag to the side of his head. One side of his head was covered in blood. "I think I might have fractured my skull, but everything is fine." He continued to smile as he sat down across from her. "So, what are you writing?"

She pushed her laptop away, suppressing a sigh. "Nothing important. Let's take a look at that cut. What happened?"

"Your boyfriend hit me in the head."

"He's not my boyfriend!"

Cole snorted. "Sure." Nya carefully applied medicine and a bandage to his head, the best she could do without a medical degree and proper supplies. "Either way, he is officially mine to beat up. Thanks." He stood when she was finished and started to leave.

"What are you going to do?" Nya called after him.

"I'm going to hang him off the side of the ship until he apologizes!" Cole called over his shoulder. "Thanks, Nya!"

"You're… welcome," Nya said in an odd tone of voice, sitting back down at her computer. She re-read her section on Cole before deleting it. Gooey center, indeed.

_The leader is named Cole, and he's the ninja of earth. He's buff, he's in charge, and I'm pretty sure he could bench press me through a steel wall. Not that he'd ever try though._

_Well, aside from Cole there's also Zane. He's the ninja of ice, and even though it's a horrible pun, he's a cool guy. Totally calm in every situation. But, he is also a little strange, to say the least._

She tried to think of a kind way to say that he was perhaps the strangest, most random person she had ever met, perhaps to the degree that he needed to be medicated or at least studied extensively.

_I think that he might have something wrong upstairs, you know… his head just doesn't seem to be on right at all times._

Nya looked up when Zane entered the dining room, face a complete blank as usual. He sat down opposite her and watched her silently. She looked back, uncomfortable.

"Hello," he said finally.

"Hi, Zane," she replied. "What's up?"

"Cole is currently threatening Jay's life," he said in a manner-of-fact tone. "Kai sent me to get help."

Silence.

"Do you… want _me_ to help?" she asked, unsure of his motives. She doubted that she could do anything to change Cole's mind at this point.

"No," Zane replied. "They do not need assistance."

"Um, okay, I guess." Nya pushed her laptop away in curiosity. "Why not?"

Zane never shrugged, but Nya thought that such a motion would have fit in the silence before his answer perfectly. "Cole and Jay have conflicting personalities, and so tend to clash over any small thing. Cole enjoys a matched bout without any underhanded 'street fighting'. While they were sparring, Jay, who's earlier forms of martial arts were all 'street fighting' based, caused Cole a wound to the head, which you patched up quite nicely, considering the supplies available to you."

Nya wasn't sure, but she thought there was a compliment in their somewhere, and so she said "Thanks," vaguely, before letting Zane continue.

"The best way for them to reach a long-term compromise would be to talk about it, and find the equal ground between them. They cannot do this with outside help," Zane explained.

It suddenly all made sense. Zane was letting Cole and Jay throw each other off the side of the ship hundreds of feet above the earth because he wanted them to deal with their problems themselves. If someone else separated them, they would stay bitter about it.

"Wow, Zane," Nya smiled. "That's actually really well thought out."

He nodded in agreement before hearing a loud shout and a clash of shattering glass. "ZANE!" Kai shouted. "ZANE! COLE AND JAY FELL OFF THE SHIP!"

Zane smiled at Nya before getting out and strolling calmly outside, leaving her sitting with her computer with a puzzled expression. She pulled it closer and began to type, deleting her previous explanation of Zane.

_But, he is also a little strange, to say the least. He's actually really smart about relationships and he treats the other guys like they're his brothers… which they really are, now that I think about it. It's actually pretty sweet._

_Then there's Jay. He's the ninja of lightning._

That was as far as Nya got before hearing a loud smack on the wood of the deck. Feeling like she couldn't suppress her curiosity any longer, she got up and followed the noise to the deck of the _Bounty._

Cole and Jay were collapsed in the middle on their backs, staring up with shocked expressions. Cole's thick black hair was sticking straight up, and Jay had a few scorch marks on his clothes and skin, and his hair seemed to be full of static electricity. Zane and Kai stood nearby, arms crossed and smirking. Well, Zane was as close to a smirk as Nya had ever seen him come.

"I think I just had my life flash before my eyes…" Cole said in a faraway voice. He shuddered, curling into a ball. "Show tunes. So many show tunes."

"What?" Jay asked, lifting a scarred eyebrow, not sure if he had heard right.

"Nothing," Cole huffed. "I guess I'm sorry I tried to break your arm."

"Yeah," Jay admitted, tensing as an arch of blue electricity traveled from his hair to his shoulder. "I guess I'm sorry for pounding your head into the mast. No hard feelings?" he tentatively held up a closed fist. Cole eyed it before smiling faintly.

"Sure, sparkplug. No hard feelings." He tapped his knuckles against Jay's and then winced at the shock. "Besides," he hefted himself to his feet and helped Jay up, "I've been hit harder. You should teach me that move later."

"Totally," Jay agreed, stretching his back once on his face. "I didn't know that you could use electric wires like that. You should tell me later how you thought of it."

"Will do."

Jay noticed Nya standing on the upper level of the deck. A transformation took over his face as he watched her, smile growing deeper and wider, his eyes lighting up. He lifted one arm and waved, before suddenly getting nervous and trying to quickly smooth down his hair, conducting the electricity into his arm and making him jump suddenly.

Nya smiled to herself before walking back inside, and sitting down. She needed to finish her email soon, before all the wifi got taken up by the boys playing co-op video games.

_Then there's Jay. He's the ninja of lightning. He's probably the closest of the three to Kai, but that's not a bad thing because—_

"H-hi, Nya." Jay stood awkwardly in the doorway to the dining room. "What's, ah, what's up?"

"Nothing," she smiled brightly at him. "Just writing an email."

"Oh. Oh, cool. Um, well, I was just thinking about how uh… well, when I was, uh, falling hundreds of feet to my death, I, uh saw that in the city below us there was a movie theater."

Nya suddenly felt her heartbeat increase slightly, rising in her throat.

"And I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go see a movie with me later?" he blurted out loudly, trying to keep a tight grip on his nerve.

A bit of color came to Nya's face. "Oh, that's be great, I—"

"We'd love to go!" Kai stepped in, only having heard the first part of Jay's speech, with Cole and Jay behind him. He leaned walked around Jay to stand in the dining room. "What movies were they playing?"

"Do you think they have the new Clutch Powers movie?" Cole asked, making his way to the kitchen.

"Uh… probably," Jay said, peeking a look at Nya, who was focusing on her brother with murder in her eyes. Typical Kai didn't want his kid sister dating his teammate. He smiled back knowingly at her.

"We'll see that, then," Kai decided, and followed Cole and his bag of chips out of the room, leaving Jay standing alone with Nya, awkwardly.

"It'll be really fun," Jay added softly. "Even though… you know." He jerked his head back as if to say, 'Even though we'll be chaperoned by the douchebag committee'.

"I'm looking forward to it," Nya replied quickly with her best smile. "Really."

Jay blushed slightly. "Good… good." He seemed like he wanted to say more, taking a half step forward, only for Cole to loudly shout out that he needed to move or lose his lucky controller. He took that excuse to leave Nya before he could screw up his chances with her even more.

Nya faced her computer again.

_Then there's Jay. He's the ninja of lightning. He's probably the closest of the three to Kai, but that's not a bad thing because he takes all of his stubborn energy and turns it into creation. He invents these great robots for them to spar with, and talks about flying like it's a science. I think I love him._

Nya started suddenly and erased the last sentence that she had typed without thinking. Then she paused before typing fervently.

_He invents these great robots for them to spar with, and talks about flying like it's a science. I love him. I love the way he walks, like he can't remember where he was going halfway through, how he has a scar on his eyebrow, how lopsided his grin is. I love the way he says my name. I just wish that Kai would quit being so overprotective and let me go on a date with him._

There. That was better. She continued quickly, keeping an eye on her diminishing internet connection strength. As one, the ninja down the hall all exclaimed in anguish as they lost their game.

_Kai is still the same Kai that you knew. So overprotective and impulsive. But I think that he might take on this responsibility and learn to be a better person. Hopefully. Until then, he's still my bigheaded brother._

_Talk to you again soon, Ty Lee! Say hello to all the girls for me!_

_Nya_

She sent the email off without a second thought and shut off her computer. She snuck down the hall and peeked in on the guys, all engrossed in their furious game of Cobra Battles. With them preoccupied, she closed the door to her room and lifted up the floorboard that hid her blueprints.

Today seemed as good a day as any to begin work on her Samurai Armor.


	2. Chapter 2

**I guess I ended up continuing the story. Go figure.**

* * *

Nya woke up before her alarm and switched it off, too full of energy to go back to sleep. Kai had always called her a morning person (although not in a way that was supposed to be a compliment) and he was right.

She got dressed and grabbed her laptop, taking a seat in the spacious kitchen and powering it up. A new email from Ty Lee was waiting for her, and she opened it up happily, although she grew a bit worried as it went on. She and her oldest friend had been emailing each other constantly since Nya left the village to live with the ninja, and Ty Lee had managed not to go overboard on her worries… until now, that was. The Overlord had only been defeated two days ago, and none of the ninja—save the Garmadon family and Sensei Wu—had been overly eager to go their separate ways. Although the _Bounty_ had gone down, they had been given their old penthouse apartment back as a gift until they decided what they wanted to do.

As Nya finished reading the rather lengthy note of concern, she sat back to think on it, and so was only half there when Zane entered the kitchen.

"Good morning, Nya," he said happily and began gathering ingredients for breakfast.

"Morning, Zane," she replied, tugging her lips together in a thoughtful way. She shook her head slightly and pushed the email from her mind, choosing instead to focus on Zane and his rapidly growing tower of raw ingredients and tools. "What are you doing?"

"I thought that if I started breakfast early," he heaved his pile of breakfast supplies onto the countertop, "then Cole would not feel it his job to pitch in."

Nya couldn't help but smile. "That's a good idea."

Zane whipped up a batch of pancakes so fast Nya could have sworn it was magic. But she knew better. It was only pure, simple mechanical precision. She made a note to talk to Dr. Julien later about robotics, before they all went their separate ways.

At the smell of food, a ruffled Kai, his hair even spikier than normal, and a rumpled Jay, eyes still closed, stumbled into the room, their pajamas askew and wrinkled.

Kai walked past Zane, picked up a pancake with his fingers, ignoring the heat, and then dropped onto the plush rug in the attached living room, not strong enough to make it to one of the three large couches. Jay slid into a seat by Nya and smiled through his sleepiness.

"Hi, Nya," he said in a small voice.

"Hi," she replied back sweetly, cheeks heating.

As Zane was setting down the large platters of pancakes, waffles, bacon, and eggs onto the kitchen table, a loud banging was heard coming up the steps to the apartment door. Kai cursed into the rug before curling into a ball. Nya and Jay braced for impact.

"Morning, everyone!" Cole shouted as the door flung open as if by some percussive force. He walked in, his bare arms and chest shiny with sweat and his hair ruffled perfectly. He was smiling widely, and as he entered, he walked to the tune of whatever music was playing in the MP3 Player he had in his ears. He approached Kai and without missing a beat preformed the Triple Tiger Sashay with Kai's head as the initial hand post. He landed perfectly in front of Zane, Jay, and Nya, his huge smile still obvious.

"It's unnatural," Jay hissed as Cole sashayed his way over to the fridge to chug orange juice right from the carton. "What demon did you sell your soul to to be so…" he paused to search for a proper word.

"Chipper?" Zane supplied, taking away Cole's juice carton with a significant look.

"Handsome?" Cole said after frowning at Zane and giving his captured orange juice a wanting glance. As Jay lifted his scarred eyebrow heavenwards, Cole gestured down his beyond chiseled torso, olive skin glowing. "Am I right, Nya?"

She rolled her eyes with a tolerant smile. "I think the word you're looking for, Jay, is 'insufferable'."

"That's it! Insufferable!"

Cole rolled his eyes and took out his ear buds, taking a seat at the table opposite Nya and Jay. He dragged a plate of bacon towards himself and Zane appeared at his elbow with a glass of orange juice, poured in the proper manner. Cole smiled his thanks and dug in before pointing to Nya's computer.

"What'cha doing?" he asked around a mouthful of bacon. Kai had slithered over to the kitchen and was now leaning against the counter where he was currently burning his toast. Zane, ever the robotic housewife, was starting to clean his cooking dishes.

"I just finished reading an email from my friend Ty Lee," Nya said lightly, trying to imply that she didn't want to pursue the subject and apparently failing as Cole shoved another forkful of bacon into his mouth (Nya had a moment to wonder—and it was not her first time wondering—how Cole kept himself so fit while living solely on fat, sugar, and whatever carbohydrates that came in the average cake) and spoke again.

"Ty Lee… she's the one that's been picking up your guys' mail while you were gone," he gestured vaguely with his head to show that he included Kai in his 'guys'.

Nya nodded and hoped that the subject would be dropped. It was not.

"What did her letter say?" Zane asked, drying his hands on his apron and coming to sit alongside the others. Kai, burned toast in hand, began piling an absurd amount of eggs and hot sauce on them, much to Jay's obvious disgust.

Nya made the mistake of looking away.

"What's wrong?"

"Is it bad?"

"Did something happen?"

Only Jay was silent as he watched her expression carefully.

"It's nothing," she tried to insist over the other three ninja's loud clamoring to try and guess what was wrong ("Is she dead?" "Has the store been robbed?" "Did she send you a chain mail message?" "_ZANE._"). "Really, you guys, it's nothing… I'm serious, nothing is wrong, it's just—I—will you—QUIET."

Cole, Kai, Zane, and Jay looked to the teenage girl. She looked straight at her brother with the strange foresight that if she looked at anyone else: quietly supportive Jay, thunderously worried (and still quite shirtless) Cole, or frostily prepared Zane, she would start crying.

"She wants us to come home," Nya said.

At first the ninja were surprised at how this could get a negative reaction out of her before it really sank in. Cole dragged a hand first through his thick black hair and then across his chin. He chuckled quietly, aware that as leader his team was currently looking at him for a response.

"So… uh, I guess we should have, you know, seen it coming…"

"Yes," Zane agreed in a distant tone, eyes not really focused on anything in particular.

"I mean, the world _has _been saved and we're all good to go…" Kai said in a supportive voice, looking at his sister. "We could open the shop again and—"

"_Wait!_" Jay held up his hands and stood slightly, looking around in confusion. "You guys… you're talking about splitting up? The team!" he cried out nervously before dropping back down into his chair and looking at the tabletop.

Suddenly everyone was looking at every possible place that was not occupied by someone else. Cole stared at the posh cabinets above Nya's head. Zane looked to his forearm. Kai stared at his pile of food. Jay looked at the ceiling. Nya glared at her laptop before pulling it closer and waking it up.

"She's been worried sick about us ever since we left," she explained, skimming over the message again. "Everyone has."

Kai wearily closed his eyes. "Could we… maybe not talk about this right now?"

"It's not going to go away," Nya replied.

"I know!"

The fire ninja stood up angrily, taking his plate of burned toast, eggs, and a puddle of hot sauce with him, back into his room. They all heard the door slamming.

Cole was the next to stand up, stretching his legs. "I… I'm gonna go take a shower." He walked off in a vague direction with a far-off look in his eye.

Zane didn't even offer an excuse before walking off into some distant corner of the apartment.

Jay and Nya sat alone at the table, surrounded by uneaten breakfast food.

Suddenly, they both began to speak at once.

"Jay—"

"Nya, I—"

They laughed nervously. Jay said, "You first."

Nya swallowed heavily, blushing. "I just wanted to say… that… I really liked getting to know you."

Jay winced and looked away. "Just… don't. I want to still get to know you. I want to still know you. I want to keep on knowing you, for a long time."

"Jay," Nya said gently.

"I don't want to be the lonely inventor guy again," Jay continued. "I love being a ninja. I love my brothers. I love…" he cut himself off with a cough, pointedly not looking at Nya.

He jumped when she put her hand over his. He turned to look at her and his heart missed a beat when she kissed him. He closed his eyes and felt warmth wash over his body, broken when Nya pulled away.

She was grinning widely. "If you think for a moment that I'm going to forget about you, then you have another thing coming."

He made a noise of joy in the back of his throat, unable to speak, because she was kissing him again. For a moment, everything was good.

Suddenly Nya pulled back, jumping up. "Oh, Jay, I just got a great idea!"

"You too?" he asked in a dreamy voice.

"What?"

"Well, I was thinking of kissing you again," he said before thinking about what he was saying and blushing a bright red color. "Um. What were you talking about?"

She smiled before turning to him completely. "Do you want to help me with something?"

He smiled easily in return. "Always."

* * *

Cole was just shampooing his hair when a great loud pounding came onto the bathroom door.

"Cole!" Nya shouted through the wood. "Are you still in the shower?!"

"Augh!" he shouted back, soap burning his eyes as he drowned his face in water to try and wash out the shampoo.

"I need to talk to you about Marty Oppenheimer!"

"Is this really necessary right now?" he asked, blinking water out of his eyes and then pushing back his sopping wet hair. Thankfully Nya was a girl of class and hadn't barged her way into the bathroom; the posh, upscale design of the entire apartment dictated that the shower walls needed to be made of glass. He turned off the hot water and stepped out onto a towel, grabbing another one from a wall rack.

"Kind of," Nya answered. "Let me tell you about an idea I have."

"Yeah?"

Nya looked him up and down, from the top of his head, black hair smoothed back from his head and skin shining with water, his only covering a white towel wrapped around his waist, low on his hips. She turned away. "Put on some clothes first."

Cole smiled. A girl of class, indeed.

* * *

"So, what do you think?"

"A marvelous idea!" Dr. Julien said, the same time Zane said, "We need to consider our options."

The older man looked at his son in confusion. "Zane? What's wrong?"

The nindroid hesitated. "As much as I would enjoy this, I am not sure of my place in it."

He looked up with an unreadable expression as his father placed his hand on his shoulder. "Zane, my boy. You are not an experiment. You are just as capable of an inventor as I am. The Institute would be honored to have you."

Zane began to glow a bit and Nya excused herself quickly. One job left, and she hoped it was getting down right. She would meet Jay in a few moments. She was just picking up her purse when a loud shouting match began in the living room of the apartment.

"No! No, I won't allow it."

"I don't remember asking for your permission, Dad." Nya could almost hear the angry narrowing of Cole's eyes.

"Nevertheless, son, you just finished saving the world. I want you to come home."

Nya hesitated before leaning into the room. "Cole? Lou?" she asked sweetly. The two men, so alike in coloration, with olive toned skin and thick black hair, but so dissimilar in physical stature, looked to her with mirrored expressions of exasperation. Lou was tall and lithe, with long, elegantly sculpted limbs that were almost feminine. Cole was on the short side, broad and well-built in the waist and legs, all pure muscle.

"Is something wrong?" she continued.

Suddenly both of them were shouting at each other and Nya and she sighed, typing out a quick message on her phone.

* * *

Jay frowned at his phone. Nya was running late. She asked him to please improvise his part of the plan with Kai.

"Um," he said loudly. Kai looked sideways at him.

"What?" he asked.

Jay stuttered. "Nothing. Nya wasn't texting me."

"I didn't ask if she was," Kai noted.

"Um. Right. Ha."

Kai sighed before stopping. They were both out on the streets of Ninjago City, looking for something that Jay was constantly claiming as 'just around the corner'.

"What's this about, Jay?" he asked. And then his voice got hard. "And what's going on between you and my sister."

"Which one of those questions do you want answered first?" he asked in a strange tone of voice. Kai glared and Jay began walking again, quickly. "Nothing!" he shouted over his shoulder before breaking into a run. Yes. This was a good plan.

As expected, Kai also broke into a sprint, chasing after Jay, his temper rising. "Jay! JAY, YOU GET BACK HERE AND TELL ME WHATS GOING ON WITH YOU AND NYA!"

* * *

Nya arrived at the address half an hour later to find Jay up a phone pole, and Kai at the base, steaming.

"I swear, Jay, if you ever laid one hand on my sister, I'm gonna—"

"Gonna what?" Nya asked tersely. "Fight my battles for me?"

Kai whirled around and Jay heaved a sigh of relief, sliding down the pole.

"What's going on, Nya?" Kai asked, hands on his hips and his scarred eyebrow raised indignantly. "Why all the secrets and plans?"

Nya pointed wordlessly to the building they were standing in front of. Kai dropped his arms once he read the sigh. His jaw dropped as he re-read it. And finally he smiled widely.

"Sis, you've done it again."

"Naturally," she replied.

* * *

_Dear Ty Lee,_

_Thanks for your message, but I don't think that Kai and I will be coming back to the village. It's not that we won't miss it, but there's something more important keeping us in Ninjago City._

_The guys all got together and they have everything planned out. Kai and I found a cool storefront with a courtyard we could put the forge in, and we plan on making hand-forged weapons, which can get a good price this deep in the city. There's an apartment over it that we can comfortably stay in (even if it's a bit smaller than the _Bounty_)._

_The reason that this is so good because everyone else is staying in the city, too. Jay is planning on rooming with Zane and his father, who have been hired to work for a great scientific development company. Cole is going to have a bit of a commute, and his father had a bit of an argument with him about it, but he's going to stay in the city too, and take a bus to the Marty Oppenheimer School of Dance and Preforming Arts. His dad Lou is a nice enough guy, but he wanted Cole to stay with him, a walking distance from the school. And Cole said no (read: pitched a hissy fit), and his dad finally gave in, happy enough to have his son attend Marty's. Apparently Kai and the rest could go too, since there's a bylaw in the school that says that if you won the Blade Cup you get a full scholarship._

_We're all staying together._

_Sensei Wu and his family, Garmadon, Lloyd, and Misako are staying here as well, and they're going to move into the apartment that the boys and I have been stagnating in all week. Lloyd's dragon can stay on the roof._

_As much as I loved the village and you and the rest of the girls, I love saving people (even if it's mostly just my idiot brother and his friends getting into trouble) and I love being with my new family. Cole and Zane are like the older brothers Kai never was. Jay is something… different._

_Oh, who am I kidding?_

_You can go tell all the girls that Jay and I are now officially dating. Kai looked ready to kill Jay when I told him, but I guess that he trusts him better than just some guy off the street. He's something else. The way he talks, rambling on so that you feel like you're reading his mind instead of listening to him. The way he forgets that he has grease on his fingers before touching his nose or running his fingers through his hair, staining it. I just can't stop thinking about him._

_So, I'm sorry Ty, about not coming home. Tell everyone I love them and that I will visit soon, to get the supplies from the shop and move them over. Until then, I'm looking forward to hearing from you again. Don't worry; nothing bad is going to happen. The Overlord is gone. That and I'm surrounded by four ninja, two spinjitsu masters, the savior of the world, and one archeologist who can do some incredibly threatening things with a scroll case. I'm pretty sure between them and my own samurai armor I'm the safest person in all of Ninjago._

_See you soon, Ty._

_~Nya_

* * *

**Maybe a third part coming? I dunno. Please review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Finally got around to writing this. A little short, but I really don't think it needed to be longer. Thank you all for reading.**

* * *

"Nice place," Cole noted, looking around, hands shoved in his pockets.

"You didn't have to come with us," Kai reminded him for the fourth time that day. And for the fourth time, Cole responded with a baiting smile and a shrug.

"Better than sitting around doing nothing over at Oppenheimer's," he said. "So, what are we moving?"

While Kai fumed and was about to snap back a response, Nya spoke up. "Could you grab the forge? It's pretty heavy, so if you need help…" he picked it up off the ground and balanced it on one shoulder. "…Nevermind."

With another smug grin, Cole walked outside, setting the forge down by the pile of other supplies that they had been amassing for the greater part of the morning. Jay would be showing up later with a truck from his parent's scrap yard to help them haul it all to Ninjago City. Zane was down at the village, rightly in charge of snacks (Cole had volunteered for this and everyone quickly shut him down, his idea of 'snacks' including everything from freeze-dried snails on one occasion to alligator jerky another). Almost everything they would need to keep a shop running in the City was pulled out already.

Nya was starting to haul some raw iron rods outside when she spotted a figure in a white and pink robe making its way up the walkway. She dropped her load and ran down the walkway, almost knocking Cole over in the process.

"Ty Lee!" she shouted.

"Nya!" the girl replied, pulling her into a hug. They crashed together into a squealing pile of red, white, and pink.

Cole steadied himself, leaning one arm on the cold iron of the forge. "I'm guessing that that's Ty Lee?"

Kai made a pained expression. "Yeah."

"And you're not… friendly?"

"Oh, she's very friendly," Kai responded dryly. "Just not to me."

To prove his point, he waved one arm over his head widely, calling out, "Hey, Ty Lee!"

She made a rude gesture towards him. Cole doubled over laughing before clapping Kai on the shoulder. "Oh, she is a girl after my own heart."

Kai grunted something vaguely condescending in response, shrugging off Cole's wide hand and ducking back inside the hut to grab another handful of tools and supplies.

Nya led her friend up to the front of the shop. "Hey, this is Ty Lee. Ty Lee, this is—"

"Oh, I know! I've heard so much about all of you. It's almost like I already know all of you ninja." She shook Cole's hand hard, but unlike others who had been subjected to her deadly grip, he didn't even flinch. She was mildly impressed.

"Well, we are a motley bunch," Cole noted. "Nya's a saint for putting up with us."

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly at the compliment. "You guys aren't half as bad as you make it seem. You do your own laundry. Unlike Kai."

"I heard that!"

"You were meant to!"

Something banged loudly inside that Nya hoped wasn't too important. Ty Lee smiled widely at Cole, hands folded behind her back in her typical manner. "It really is good to meet you," she continued. "I can't tell you how excited I've been to meet you since Nya emailed me that you were coming down. She talks about you _all _the time."

"Really?" Cole raised an eyebrow at the puzzled-looking Nya. "Like, me?"

"Like, _totally_ you. You've made quite an impression on her." She winked. _Winked._ Nya almost stopped breathing for an embarrassing moment.

A slightly blush rose in Cole's cheeks as he continued to silently ask Nya for clarification on Ty Lee's ramblings. "I mean, geez, you are quite a package, let me tell you that, definitely more than I ever expected Nya to fall for." She made a gesture encompassing Cole's ripped torso and he nervously folded his arms, only serving to extenuate his well-toned and swollen arms.

"Um, Ty Lee…" Nya tried to say, but was cut off.

"No, hon, don't be ashamed of it, I'm sure he's had hundreds of girls falling for him before, what with his whole 'cooking, poetry, inventing' schtick." Cole suddenly looked relieved, finally understanding.

"No, you have it all wrong… I'm not—"

"A triple threat? Yeah I figured as much. There's no way you could possibly do all three, but who can really blame Nya for saying you could, you really deserve to be something other than a pretty face."

"Pretty face?" Kai poked his head out of the shop while Cole sputtered indignantly about in fact being the literal theater definition of a triple threat, and Nya stared with an empty expression at her misunderstanding best friend. In the distance, a large, hobbled-together car began to approach.

"Ty Lee!" Nya shouted, cutting her friend off, "Who do you think this is?" she gestured to Cole.

Ty Lee blinked. "Your boyfriend. Jay."

Cole glared at Kai, who was laughing hysterically to himself at the turn of events, and Nya sighed, massaging her throbbing temples. "This," she pointed at Cole, who was headed towards Kai with murder in his eyes, "is _Cole._"

While Ty Lee absorbed this information with a shocked expression, Nya looked over her shoulder and smiled, nodding, "_That's_ Jay."

Ty Lee looked over her shoulder in time to see Jay falling over the edge of the car, face-planting. Then she looked back to see Cole quickly removing his shirt inside the shop, since it was by some machination of Kai's, currently on fire. He stood up straight, huffing in anger, his chest and six-pack abs in clear view. She looked back again, and Jay was sitting up in the dust, one hand at his throbbing head. Then she looked to Nya, looking smug.

"Cole?" Ty Lee asked tentatively, looking properly abashed.

Nya nodded. "Cole."

Ty Lee looked again to Jay, who was standing again, smiling broadly and looking like he had nowhere in the world he'd rather be.

"… and that's Jay?" Ty Lee asked again.

Ny nodded. "And that's Jay," she confirmed. "My _boyfriend._"

Ty Lee opened her mouth. Closed it. Watched as Cole held Kai in a headlock, demanding he apologize, and then watched with a spaced-out expression as Jay came over and slung one arm around Nya's shoulders, giving her a kiss on the forehead and a truly gooey "Hey."

"Hey," Nya said with a tiny grin, and Ty Lee did a double-take at the tone of her friend's voice, a warm and high-pitched sound that Ty Lee had never heard her use before. She had to smile that that and offered her hand to Jay to shake.

"It's nice to meet you, Jay, I've heard so much about you," she said.

He took her hand with a smile that couldn't be denied. "Nice to meet you too. We've all heard a lot about you too," he said, waving his hand behind him to indicate the now amicable Cole and Kai, who were arguing over how to better load the forge onto the truck. Ty Lee smiled and was about to comment when she noticed Zane approaching over the hill, carrying a bag of food.

Her introduction to him had to wait until the other three ninja were done attacking him for the food he had bought for lunch, and everyone settling down around the gutted blacksmith's shop to eat.

Ty Lee had been worried when her best friend had decided to stay with her brother and travel the world. She had been terrified when her best friend had been fighting the forces of darkness. She had woken up from nightmares of all the things that could go wrong, with Nya alone with only her brother.

But now, watching as Cole ribbed Kai unnecessarily, prodding him with his chopsticks and occasionally joking about pouring different ingredients into his food, with Zane attempting to mediate and getting shut out quickly, while Jay and Nya sat side-by-side, looking more interested in their private conversation than their food, Ty Lee figured that Nya would be okay.

What she had first understood as a team of near-strangers was now a family. She couldn't think of better company for her best friend.

As the day ended Ty Lee pulled Nya in for a tight hug. "Promise to keep writing," she said, eyes imploring. "I don't want to lose you."

Nya smiled in response. "I promise."

Ty Lee waved as they all disappeared over the hill, the sun setting behind them.

* * *

**And... that's it. Thank you all for taking this journey with me.**

**Please Review.**


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